The Secret Year by Jennifer Hubbard

Here’s a snippet off of Ms. Hubbard’s website: Seventeen-year-old Colt has been sneaking out at night to meet Julia, a girl from an upper-class neighborhood unlike his own. They’ve never told anyone else about their relationship: not their family or friends, and especially not Julia’s boyfriend. When Julia dies suddenly, Colt tries to cope with her death while pretending that he never even knew her. He discovers a journal Julia left behind. But Colt is not prepared for the truths he discovers about their intense relationship, nor to pay the price for the secrets he’s kept.


Colt struggles with how to cope with the loss of Julia and appear unaffected to the rest of the world. How do you grieve over someone you weren’t even supposed to know? He also has quite a bit of guilt, feeling that the argument he was in with Julia prior to the accident, contributed in some way to her death. He’s torn between the connection he feels to Julia through a journal of letters she wrote to him, and his desire to go on with life, to feel again. Julia and Colt come from different worlds. Her family is very affluent and his is poor. He starts to realize that those labels (the haves and the have-nots) fade quickly in the light of the real world. So to quote the great John Lennon, “And, in the end, the love you take - Is equal to the love you make.”

I liked the fact that the main character was male. It provided a great change of pace for me. The characters were great. I liked it a lot but didn’t fall in love with it. I’m not sure why, but it just didn’t really get to that point with me. I would recommend reading it for sure. There wasn’t much in the way of swearing but there was some sex. I would say 16 and up.

I’ll give it 3 roses.